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Papers of Mercedes Randall, 1914-1977Martha P. ShaneEncoding made possible by a grant
from the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation to the Philadelphia Consortium of
Special Collections Libraries Swarthmore College Peace CollectionMarch
1985Text
converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex Data Services, January
2001.ENGPapers of Mercedes Randall,
1914-1977Martha P. ShaneSwarthmore
College Peace CollectionMarch 1985
Descriptive Summary
Papers of Mercedes
RandallDG 1104 linear feet, 1917-1977 Swarthmore College Peace Collection Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081-1399Notes and drafts for Randall's biography of Emily
Greene Balch, Improper Bostonian, and an anthology of Balch writings, Beyond
Nationalism; biographical material; correspondence (1914-1976) especially with
leaders of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; miscellaneous
family papers; World War I scrapbook; personal statements on pacifism by noted
individuals; subject files about peace and social concerns; articles and
pamphlets by Randall; clippings; and photos. Includes notes and letters of
Emily Greene Balch, Gertrude C. Bussey, Jessie Wallace Hughan, and Andrée
Jouve; materials relating to Jewish rescue and the Holocaust, including her
pamphlet The Voice of Thy Brother's Blood; and materials relating to Young
Democracy and the U.S. Section of Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom.

Mercedes M. Randall

DG 110

Papers (1914-1977)

History

Mercedes
Moritz Randall, writer and peace worker, was born September 11, 1895, in
Guatemala City where her father Albert Moritz was an American merchant. She
received her B.A. from Barnard College in 1916 and a master's degree in history
from Columbia University. She taught both English and history in New York City
between 1916 and 1923. She married John Herman Randall, Jr., a professor of
philosophy at Columbia, in 1922, and the couple had two sons, John Herman
Randall, III, and Francis Ballard Randall, both of whom became professors. The
Randalls lived at 15 Claremont Avenue in Morningside Heights, New York City,
and summered in an old farmhouse in Peacham, Vermont. Mercedes Randall died on
March 9, 1977, at the age of 81.

Already involved with pacifist and
social concerns during World War I, Randall became a member of the Young
Democracy. Colleagues in this group included Devere Allan, Frances Witherspoon
and Tracy Mygatt, and these friendships endured throughout their lives. She was
one of the early members of the Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom, holding many executive offices including chairman of the National
Education Committee. She was president of the Manhattan branch of WILPF.
Randall first met Emily Greene Balch in 1918 at a dinner in New York City
sponsored by the Collegiate Anti-Militarism League. Balch was the first
International Secretary of WILPF and the two women worked closely together on
many WILPF projects. Miss Balch asked Randall to be her literary executor, and,
in 1964, Randall wrote a biography of Balch entitled Improper Bostonian: Emily Greene Balch. Later, in 1972,
she edited Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of
Emily Greene Balch. She led the campaign that resulted in Balch
receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946.

Randall wrote much WILPF
material including pamphlets, reports, articles, and mailings. In 1944, she
wrote a pamphlet “The Voice of Thy Brother's Blood”, a plea for action to help
the Jewish refugees of World War II. This was distributed by both WILPF and the
American Jewish Committee. She and Balch together wrote the pamphlet
“Highlights of WILPF History, 1915-1946”. Other writings included the appendix
to the 1945 edition of Peace and Bread by Jane
Addams and the introductions to Women at the Hague
by Jane Addams and Occupied Haiti by Balch.
She also compiled indexes for several WILPF periodicals.

Her publisher,
Twayne, described Randall as having “devoted herself to problems of
international and interracial peace and justice.” After her death in 1977, the
WILPF periodical Peace and Freedom (April-May
1977) wrote: “Mrs. Randall believed strongly that the peace movement was
historically important and that similar studies should be made of some of the
other pioneer women and their early followers who showed clearly the connection
between pacifism and freedom and feminism and economic change all over the
world. She kept track of all such books that appeared and urged the peace
leaders to write before they died so that others could have the record.”

Scope and Contents

The papers of
Mercedes M. Randall include her research on Emily Greene Balch whose biography
she wrote in 1964 as well as the book Beyond Nationalism:
The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch which she edited in 1972. Both
books are in the SCPC library. There are pamphlets, articles, reports, and
mailings that Randall wrote for WILPF, including the pamphlets “The Voice of
Thy Brother's Blood” (1944) and “Highlights of WILPF History, 1915-1946”. Other
writings include letters to the editor and the indexes of several WILPF
periodicals.

There is correspondence with prominent peace leaders, some
of whom were WILPF colleagues. There is also correspondence pertaining to
projects in which she was involved. This includes the responses to a letter
Randall sent in 1940 to representative Americans asking them to formulate “the
conditions of a lasting peace,” and the responses, in 1972, to a letter to
pacifists of her acquaintance on “What I Believe.” There is also correspondence
pertaining to Balch's Nobel Peace Prize (1946). One item of correspondence is
restricted at this time.

Her subject files contain articles, notes,
correspondence, and other material about peace-related topics. They include two
scrapbooks on World War I, information about the Young Democracy, and a large
collection of pamphlets and booklets on the Jewish refugees during World War
II.

Personal calendars for the years 1973 to 1976 and her obituary can
also be found.

The bulk of
these papers was given to SCPC in 1977 by Francis B. Randall following the
death of his mother Mercedes M. Randall earlier that year. Because of Mercedes
Randall's research on Emily Greene Balch for two books, there was much Balch
material in these papers that was sorted out and moved to DG 6 (Balch papers).
The remaining papers were well organized by Randall. Her system was to use
large mailing envelopes as folders with pertinent notes on the front to
identify the contents. During the processing, the writing portion of these
envelopes was removed and placed with its contents in new folders. These
folders were then arranged together depending on the predominant kind of
materials inside, i.e. correspondence with an individual, related to a project,
etc. There are often many kinds of material together in one folder, as Randall
had collected it. The folder listings in the checklist, except in the subject
files, are usually not Randall's words, but are meant to be more
descriptive.

Folders simply labeled “Writing” in Series III contain
single items together by decade. Series III is arranged in chronological
order.

There are two subject files. The first, called the
Original Order Subject File, has been left intact
in alphabetical order as Randall had kept it. The second, called the
Imposed Order Subject File, is a collection of
folders about various topics that were found in different parts of the papers,
placed together, and arranged chronologically.